Fair play to Chaddy, desperately wanted Kent to come to Ewood, when that didn’t happen he went to Kent!

Everybody trusts Mowbray. Nobody trusts Venkys. Rhodes and parachute money aside. They have no form for paying decent transfer fees. Any signings since have generally been made on the back of sales. Yet a decent kitty is clearly required. Even Ipswich are shelling out a few bob. A bit of hysteria amongst the fans may increase pressure on the board to go back to India cap - in hand. It may not. The squad is toothless and will be straight back down. No point getting hysterical once the window is closed. Nowt can be done then.

This whole thing is odd. The only way I could explain it is if Tony thinks we are close to signing someone we have wanted for a while, either a hotter prospect than Wharton (maybe with a bit more experience) or someone who can challenge Mulgrew and Lenihan, or at least isn't far behind and will provide better backup than the current lot when one of their injury spells kick in. Regardless, I hope it's not at the detriment of our vital need for attackers. What has really bemused me is Tony's comments in the paper today. We had League 1 loan offers for Wharton, but held off because we needed him for pre season matches!! What the hell? Those matches dont matter, theyre just for fitness. Put one of the other kids in there ffs. Now those League 1 clubs have moved on, and we just throw him out to League 2 as if no other League 1 clubs might want him (they may have assumed he wasn't available yet). All badly handled for me. One of the most inexplicable things Tony has done, the whole situation. I usually find him a lot more sensible and logical.

They're not interested, that should be obvious by now. Having said that I'm not convinced that Armstrong is the answer to our problems. He blew hot and cold last season at a lower level than the one we are at now. Most of the time he was played out wide, that's not his best position. If we're going to play with an out and out winger we need to sign one and not play someone out of position there.

Pessimistic, think that’s the word for most Rovers fans,plenty of time to get the 3/4 players we need,TM talking to my mate at the blues bar kit launch last week didn’t seem too concerned,did say the World Cup has cocked the window up this season,clubs took a lot of players away,did mention the young striker from City who he hopes to get on loan,also mentioned the scouting system now in place,where value for money is what they want,the French league 1@2 is definitely where they are looking also the Spanish 2 div,reasonably cheap leagues,but the German leagues top money like the English leagues,so who knows who we’ll end up with,all these players like Harrison etc who fans say we’ve missed out on,we might not have been in for them,my mate did mention Armstrong and he gave a wry smile and said the plate is still spinning on that one,we obviously would take him but not at £3 mil,either get him cheaper at last minute or another loan deal,let’s see what happens next two weeks and hopefully bring in the C/H,winger,and two strikers we need,I’m still optimistic,we’ll soon find out.

This is what people have done for the last few years though. We’ve got all Summer. We’ve got all July. There’s no rush. The World Cup is on. The window doesn’t shut until the end of August. Nobody else is signing anyone. We need to trust the manager - he is getting the right deals and avoiding paying over the odds. The season hasn’t started yet. The season’s only a week old. There’s still time yet. Then when we do finally make some last minute signings - the killer... They need time to gel - they’ve not had a proper pre-season. And when we don’t... He’s keeping his powder dry.

So someone who makes a late decison to come to Ewood should pay an extra £3? We need to be encouraging folk, not putting obstacles in the way. It is all about supply and demand surely? Airlines can do it because they will fill the seats, same as with more expensive flights in school holidays. For us, there is little demand and lots of supply, so it is a crackers policy when there are almost 20,000 empty seats in the ground.

Rather than spending thousands on new computer turnstiles they'd be better installing a cash only turnstile on each stand, then those who turn up on the day don't need to go to the ticket office.

I’ve read the quotes from Hurst and he’s as worried as anyone that their squad is light in numbers. Raya Nyambe Lenihan Mulg Williams Smallwood Davenport Bennett Dack Rothwell Graham This team can win at Ipswich imo.

Hoban far too injury prone and not good enough. That performance v Barnsley still fresh in my mind. Him and Gallagher, dont get the desire to bring players from our last failed Championship season. Need better.

I'd have loved Payne back, top notch little player, would've given us an extra dimension, can't believe we didn't get him back in on loan...

So a family or group of four people rock up at the last minute and they have to pay £12 extra. Would they be happy with that? I wouldn’t. I can’t see how this is good for the club. There have to be more imaginative ways to generate income AND maximise the footfall.

Quite right. We trust TM to identify his targets but we don't trust Venkys to do their bit.

I doubt we were in for Harrison. People seem to think when clubs buy a player for a certain fee and we don't buy him, we missed out or couldn't afford him. Mowbray isn't going to be interested in every player that moves.

Reading between the lines TM is still trying for Armstrong but a major hurdle is going to be wages after that it's looking like loans from prem clubs Imho if we finish above three other sides it'll be a success

It seems to be reasonably well accepted that the fee for Davenport was in the region of 500k and that we would probably have to find around 250-300k compensation for Rothwell who was out of contract. 800k for 2 players. Nothing like the 3m figure being quoted for Armstrong. Chaddy seems to think this is evidence of money to spend. I would say it's exactly the opposite and that we have to shop at pound stretcher.

The text is a great read and the Podcast, as usual, quite excellent. A lot of memories, good and not so, brought back quite vividly. Thanks to all involved.

John Claret yet again the first comment on an LT piece - that guy seriously has no life.

Clearly TM did have a list of targets (I was told he'd submitted those to the Board at the end of last season) and he subsequently conveyed the impression upon his return from India he was happy with the funds available. It would appear some weeks later as I've been saying all along that with the benefit of hindsight that funding has been insufficient to land any of the players he wanted and the rhetoric from TM has in fact changed substantially from confidently predicting bringing in six signings at the start of the window etc to being "excited" about the sort of players who would be coming in (funnily enough near the ST early bird deadline), to being "hopeful" of bringing in players with experience to admitting that we may not be able to bring anyone in at all in preference to Nuttall. You don't really think by TM would leave landing his targets until the last week or so of the window by choice and play Russian roulette by risking someone else nipping in first do you? We would appear to be in a right old mess. The only saving grace as far as I can see it is that it is still hopefully not too late for the Manager Board and owners to completely re-evaluate and put some decent funding in place to bring in players of the calibre we need.

Interesting that Mowbray played Dack upfront instead of Samuel. I think we can assume that Mowbray doesn't see Samuel as the answer upfront. We need solid competition for Graham

Irrefutable evidence that 2+2 DOES equal 5... I’m not saying that you won’t be proved right, but at this moment in time our transfer window is akin to Schrödinger’s cat. Why start hypothesising about “blame” and Mowbray’s mistakes now? There is literally no proof or conclusions yet! Only time will tell. I know that you’ll join me in hoping you are wrong, but either way we’re going to need to hire an industrial sized knicker untwisting machine here lads. I don’t know why you do it to yourselves I really don’t.

That's it then, welcome to Ewood Liam.

Our owners, sadly, have no vision. That comes through in their attitude to their own businesses mainly producing and selling chicken. When they took us over, they had the opportunity to really make inroads into that market in the UK using us as a vehicle, they could have kicked KFC into the long grass if done correctly. However, they looked over the precipice and looked back again as they only saw the outlay and not the rewards. This is often the result when the money/ company has been inherited. Unfortunately we have been and appear to be expendable in this process. What I can't understand is why they don't get rid of us even though it will cost because all they will get long term is aggro. I presume it is in their psychology as in the main Indians, certainly those born into a certain caste, can be and are quite arrogant.

I don't get this panic. There are plenty of teams who are still waiting to do major business, we're not alone. We've got our key players to sign new deals and brought in a couple of players and I'm sure that by the end of the window we will have made our moves. Judge the window at the end, no point being worried now. It would have been great to have everything wrapped up by now and to have a squad together, but if we have to bring players in on deadline day we will still have a season ahead of us. I'd rather make the right move than the first move.

What a Kent!

The thing is, we know for a fact that he compliments our only other 2 competent attacking players, Dack and Graham, very well. I know he struggled at Barnsley and Bolton in this league but within our team we know he fits in and thats a big advantage. I dont like players that arent naturally wingers playing wide usually, but I think hes more effective there, in that hes very clever at running in the space that Graham vacates when he comes deep to get the ball. His goals at MK Dons last season are perfect examples of them 2 in particular linking well. If we had Armstrong wide, with that tendency to come in a bit, and a more natural winger on the other side, then as a front 4 that would have a lovely balance to it.

I agree. I think his value will go up if we can get him for a couple of million and he starts to perform in the Championship. Sadly our owners don't tend to go to that sort of outlay no matter what the likely/potential return on it. They haven't gone past the £1 million mark for 5 years and that was when we were getting parachute payments.

If we don't upset a few of " the L1 team" we'll soon be having another one.

Sorry I just don't get all this panic now. The Vs seem to me to work in different ways than the expected. It's happened nearly every year when money suddenly appears in the last week of pre season. I am bloody convinced (probably misguided) that they don't want to pay wages for our "4 signings" whilst we are in pre season with no income coming in. I am convinced they look at 4 said signings on a combined 40 to 50 grand per week and think let their current clubs get them fit - not us Guv. Six weeks inactivity equals over 1/4 million saved.

What does Warnock know? He wasn’t even the outstanding candidate in a pool containing Owen Coyle.

Neil Warnock: "My secret to succeeding in the Championship is scoring goals. You can never have too many good strikers." Rovers: "The market's a bit pricey, isn't it."

The only frustrated ones are the ones on here at brfcs who want action NOW, want informing PERSONALLY and before the club announce any signings??????

If its the same Mani, looks like he's managed to extract himself from Craig Shorts arse and went and plopped himself right up Tony Mowbray's People are allowed to have a different opinion than yours, without being belittled and condescended to. So knock it off, its really annoying. I hope you're right and we sign 3 or 4 top players, looks unlikely at the minute. Time left, fingers crossed, but we've been here before with Venkys

Bore off mate. Let this sink in while you do...

You can call the colour whatever you like it's still crap. It looks like half a Man City shirt.

Just proves that there is no need for draconian measures at Ewood v Preston and Leeds.

I wouldn't spend £3m on Armstrong or even half that. He'll probably make a good career for himself in League One but I don't think her has the game to play at a higher level.

IMO you can also add Chapman to these two ..300 minutes played over 14 matches for us ..two major injuries. Big risk to sign

Why do you think that's the reason we haven't signed any more players? I think you simply want to believe that. It doesn't make sense to me. We don't want him to panic, we just want him to sign the players he targetted and presumably believes are necessary. To my mind its much more likely that the plans he drew up before last season ended have not been acted on because there isn't sufficient funds. Much more obvious explanation. Evidence?---its the same reason that has ruined just about every transfer window since Venkys rolled up.

To be fair, I think everyone trusts TM, just not Venky's.....

That we finish this window with a stronger squad than the one that finished last season.

Hope we dont spend much of our budget on a centre back when its not anywhere near as much of a pressing concern as our depleted attack. If it is still 2 permanent, 2 loans, then id like 2 of 3 attacking players (1 striker and 1 winger) to be permanent personally. Thats where we need to spend money. No need to spend big on Bauer etc.

There is no hysteria, lots of people are worried though just as you say you are. Read your second sentence again. Quite right, that's what we were told. Read your second---"other than being unable to get them done early"------that's a pretty big "other than". I'm worried others will sign them instead of us, why wouldn't I be as time drags on? Note that I'm quite balanced about this and not all hysterical. So why are we assuming we are skint or no plan b etc? 1) Because Venkys have form in Transfer Windows 2) What other explanation is there for not getting the targets identified and listed in List A before we had even secured promotion and 3 )because TM seems to be putting more reliance on loans which he said he didn't want. So we are both worried but you seem to want to explain your own worries away.

I think all parties take responsibility. I think Venkys will have made some funds available but we're talking similar or slightly more than last season. Last season those funds went a long way, in the Championship they are unlikely to deliver much. I think Mowbray is too 'principled' in what he does. I think he often strives for perfection when perfection isn't possible. This applies to everything he does - his signings, formations, etc. I think we'll have had the option to bring in countless players who would probably be good enough for this division but Mowbray has very set ideas in his head about what he wants. That's admirable but not really pragmatic for a club in our situation, which is becoming increasing desperate and it seems inevitable that he will end up having to take people who he perhaps didn't want to start with. It's also hard not to think that Waggott's sole remit here is to stretch the pennies even further than previously. It seems almost everything he has done or said relates to keeping spending on a tight leash and further cuts. Increased ticket prices, closure of the Darwen End, wanting larger away followings, increased membership fees. If the main idea behind him being here is to keep a grip on finances and cut further I'm not optimistic of significant funds finding their way into the transfer pot. Worrying times really. Needs addressing urgently.

So apparently we want a new centre half after loaning out Wharton according to the LT. I personally think we are actually covered there even with Wharton gone, but what is the point of loaning out a player which could have been useful in the squad and first team for it to then leave us short in the eyes of TM. Our budget clearly is low so why not save the money from buying a defender if we can just use some of our youth players. Doesn't make sense to me.

Why can’t there be more balanced opinions? All of the communication from the manager suggested he was happy with the budget, knew exactly which players he wanted (based on ability and mentality) and that he wanted to sign them as early as possible. Other than being unable to get them done early I see no change in that rhetoric. So why are there so many assuming ‘we’re skint’ or ‘we’ve no plan b’ etc? TM appears to refuse to settle for players unless they have the right character etc. So maybe, just maybe he doesn’t want Adulkan or Mcmanaman or Wildschut... I’m getting worried too but surely we need to get to the end of the window before the hysteria kicks in?

The Furphy topic is mint! Takes me back to my first memories of going to the Rovers, I was there at the Shay, Southend at 7.00am, and the MTH concert lol. Brilliant!

I'd try and sign Matt Smith from QPR. We are a much bigger club and I think he would be an asset to us at both ends.

There’s a job for you in Rovers’ marketing team!

It makes you wonder why the FA haven’t changed the laws around youth players, with how poorly they manage their youth set up. However, I’m starting to wonder why we bother with ours, after the announcement to move Scott Wharton out again.